Articles, Experience Design, Strategic Innovation

Take a walk at Waitrose in London and you can see the difference between that and Kroger.  CPG in North America are behind in building innovation capabilities to prepare them for the big shift ahead.

The demographic shifts happening now are creating both challenges and opportunities for CPG marketers, and companies that begin early to anticipate the shifts could become market leaders of tomorrow. It is absolutely critical for CPG marketers to rethink their portfolio and product innovations in order to market themselves to the new aging baby boomers, multicultural families and lower-income consumers of the future. Those who cannot figure out their strategies to ride on each of the three trends will see themselves falling behind.
For the last 20 years, CPG marketers have relied on mid-income families as the primary target for many CPG product developments. All new products are primarily targeted at that segments. In the next 10-15 years, there will fewer households with children, the majority of new families will be multicultural, a massive aging population and the continued growth of lower-income consumers. Research efforts needs to begin now to understand the full implications of these shifts.

CPG companies in the UK are doing a far better job. Not sure exactly why? Why is it that companies like GU out of the UK can produce such brilliant products and packaging while most North American packaged goods companies give us more of the same old thing. Just on the packaging side alone, GU has reinvented the entire packaged dessert category focusing on unmet user needs: bold flavours, new size formats and design centric packaging. They have reinvented how products are sampled via bike carts at events across the UK and office drops. Yummy innovation in a cup. Even the name draws our attention and hints at their playful side.
http://www.gupuds.com/
http://www.frupuds.com/